http://soaringspot.com/2011bsn

The water in Big Spring tastes terrible, so we drink bottled or filtered
water.

Texas plant will turn sewage into drinking water

The Colorado River Municipal Water District in West Texas began considering a
wastewater recycling plant back in 2000 and broke ground last month on the
facility in Big Spring, about 100 miles southeast of Lubbock. When finished late
next year, it should supply two million gallons of water a day.

I've never flown flex wings fast enough. I flew an ATOS for years
and I was able to fly plenty fast on that because you don't have to pull on a VG
line and it is easy to pull in the bar. Now flying with the latest Wills Wing
T2C 144 with the 24:1 VG line, I'm finally able to easily and consistently pull
most of the rope on the VG line and get the bar pressure reduced to a very
manageable amount, making it easy for me to pull and then push the bar to my
waist or beyond.

In order get to goal quickly you need to fly fast between thermals. Much faster
than best Speed to Fly speed. In strong conditions with consistent thermal
spacing so that you don't have to worry about searching for thermals you need to
fly between 45 and 55 mph. The rate of climb indicator that reflects my current
air speed on my Flytec 6030 is for the most part pegged. I'm flying almost as
fast as the air will let me, meaning that I am flying through sink and not being
tossed about by lift.

To get to goal fast, fly fast. To fly fast, pull in the bar. To make it possible
to pull in the bar for hours, pull on the VG to reduce the bar pressure.

The forecast on Monday morning was for a return to normal Big Spring conditions.
A strong south wind, about 15 mph, cloud base around 10,000', cumulus clouds,
lift 500-600 fpm, temperatures at cloud base around 54 degrees. The task
committee called for a slight dog leg task to the north to a small paved runway
to the east of Lubbock, 164 km. With the wind it looked like we could do the
task in about two and a half hours.

The cu's started forming around noon, just as we like it here, but they are
pretty sparse indicating that there won't be over development like on Sunday. 
Larry Bunner and I talked over the task as we stand next to the launch box and
given the slowly developing cu's and the short task, decide that taking the last
start clock is the way to go. It seems to us that the later the better as we
will then be able to race in the best part of the day.

All the pilots in priority wait for a later launch and the launch proceeds
quickly with pilots not having to wait and getting pulled up efficiently. A half
hour after the launch opens we all get in line and are soon in the air which is
surprisingly smooth given that the launch conditions seemed a little rough with
so much wind and thermals cracking through.

I climb up with Glen Volk to cloud base at 9,300' as we drift north at fifteen
mph toward the forty five kilometer start cylinder. We join up with four other
pilots under the thin cu's and hang at cloud base waiting for the later clocks.

Glen takes off for the second start time at 2 PM. I wait around with Bruce
Barmekian and another pilot for the 2:20 final start time. I lost Larry after
the launch as he didn't get pulled up that high and he takes the 2 PM start.

Cumulus development has proceeded and there are widely spaced but nice looking
cu's to our north toward the first turnpoint, an intersection. The wind is out
of the south southwest but is predicted to be southwest as we get near Lubbock.
Our course line to the north northeast takes us over Mesquite covered areas to
the east of the cultivated lands that are for the most part barren because of
the lack of rain.

With the strong south southwest wind varying between sixteen to twenty six mph
and the strong lift (700 fpm) under the cu's it is no problem staying high and
going fast. I see 75 mph over the ground as I pull in to go 50+ mph on glide.

Belinda is racing with the truck on the highway just below me. She reports that
Larry Bunner is down 6.7 km for the turnpoint. Just before the turnpoint I join
up for a minute or less with Zippy, and then race off to the north diverting
from the now north northeast course line to get under a line of clouds eleven
kilometers away.

I find dust devils and strong lift under the cu's. Some of the thermals start
off at 300 fpm but as soon as I find the core they go to 700 fpm. I'm soon
passing pilots who started earlier.

I get further and further away from the course line sticking with the clouds
until I can find a line of clouds that will take me back to the course line and
to goal. More cu's are developing and it looks like I will have a chance ahead
as I stay to the west of a big windmill farm, ten kilometers west of the course
line.

Sixty kilometers out I start heading north northeast. I'm going more directly
downwind now so I'm zooming across the landscape and finding strong lift under
the increasing thick and inviting cu's. Thirty kilometers out I climb in a
thermal that's averaging 600+ fpm to 9,700' and that gives me plenty of extra
altitude to get to goal. I'm 2000'+ above the best glide line to goal, and I'm
flying so fast that I'll be at 1000' below ground by the time that I get there.
I figure I can slow up if I need to.

I stop for a couple of quick turns ten kilometers from goal is super strong lift
but this turns out to be a mistake because all I hit is lift all the rest of the
way into goal. This means that I can't fly fast enough as I am being banged
around too hard by the lift. I come into goal with five gliders already there as
they started at early start times. I make the goal in a little less than two
hours, much less than we thought it would take.

Twenty or so pilots make it into goal. I don't actually land at the goal as
there was too much lift there and I went weightless trying to get down. I found
800 fpm down to the east of goal and landed there.

Joe Bostik, yesterday's leader, had some "issues" and landed thirteen miles from
goal.

Campbell and Greg on a bucking bronco on the first day.

Results can be found at the link above.